Hey! Thanks for all you've done for the van life community with your 8020 work and great documentation. It's been a big help for me as I go through my build. I'm at the stage where I'm going to start getting some 8020 to frame it out. I want to build a galley that's similar to this. But smaller. Induction cook top on the top, refrigerator in the bottom, and a drawer in between them. I'm debating doing this with 10-series instead of 15-series and I'd like your opinion. It seems strong enough. It's a lot cheaper, lighter, and it saves several inches of space which are all pretty valuable to me, obviously. Though it seems like so many people are building with 15-series exclusively. What do you or any informed viewers think about this? I'm also considering a bench seat that's more or less a cuboid with center beam supports and upper cabinets made from 10-series and I've not really seen them done with 10-series. Only 15-series. So I am obviously hesitant to go forward without running it by some people.
Hi Mike, good question. I cover much of it here: ourkaravan.com/8020-extruded-aluminum-van-cabinets/. While the 10 series itself is plenty strong, the 1/4-20 fasteners typically used with 10-series is not very strong. The 5/16" bolts typically used with the 15 series offer 61% higher proof load and tensile strength than 1/4-20. I broke a couple of 1/4-20 bolts when building my electrical cabinet and overall was not pleased with the fastener strength. I have used 15 series ever since. I actually tied some 15-series into my 10-series electrical box to fortify it a bit more. Food for thought: 10 series, even with the weaker fasteners will still likely be stronger than what most could achieve with wood. You can also switch over to using 80/20 anchor fasteners on the 10-series, which would eliminate the fastener problem entirely. But those are difficult to achieve at home and would require most people have them milled by 80/20, costing more and requiring much more planning up front. 15-series is so flexible you can build it the easy way and it will be strong and there are far more profile types and fastener types available for the 15 series. The only place I really lose space with the 15series is between my drawer boxes in my main galley. Otherwise the internal volume of a cabinet is basically the same. Thank you very much for the kind words, I hope this was helpful. -Ken
The distributor can do that for you. Follow the product link to their website and at the bottom it provides instruction on how to request modifications.
Super easy to do. Can you drop the details above in a contact form and I will send the info to my distributor? Link is here: ourkaravan.com/contact/. Thank you! -Ken
Thank you so much for putting together these great "How-To" videos. Retired disabled vet recovering from massive neck surgery, and two knee replacements. Also, building out our 2500 Pro Master. You mentioned more kits possibly available regarding galleys. We have a12v Norcold NR751BB 2.7 Cu Ft DC Refrigerator which would change our kit dimensions. I will call Steve Diaz in a couple hours to see if he can change our kit. Thank you and keep up the good work and making this portion of our van build easier to navigate.
The only thing I’d be curious to change is to put the refrigerator on a slide that allows it to slide out of the narrow opening of the galley.. That way I can mount it on the sliding door side, and slide the fridge out for easy access and loading from outside of the van
There is room for the fridge inbetween the framing but by the time you add the width of the drawer slides and drawer box inside the frame it wouldn’t work. However we can modify the depth of the galley if you’re okay with a few inches extra depth.
That’s what I’m going for, minus the illegible instructions of course! If you follow the links to the vendor’s website they provide maximum shipping cost by state. 56 lbs is the weight with fasteners included.
How do I get such panels and other aluminum because they are not found in my country and how do I know their types and prices I follow your wonderful work from Iraq
I was just going to complain that this doesn't fit a Transit since there's a funny bump out at floor level about halfway between the driver's seat and back doors. But I just measured mine and it's 52", so it could sit up against the wall behind the driver's seat. Nice.
Hi, lots of different ways to do this. You could (1) slide 5/16" carriage bolts down the back slots of the 80/20 and bolt it through the sidewall of the van, (2) use angle brackets attached to the back legs of the cabinet and bolt it through the sidewall of the van, (3), use angle brackets and rivnuts/plusnuts or (4) bolt the entire structure to either an 80/20 slot attached to the van wall or L-track. I hope this helps!
@@ourkaravan Can the unit also attach to furring strips? I had originally planned to do wood, and now I'm rethinking that process, but I have put in furring strips on one side already. The furring strips are attached to the wall using rivnuts, so super strong, just trying to figure out now how to rework what I have already done.
@@shannagachen It would be preferable to have the cabinet bolted to the steel of the van. Can you perhaps use angle brackets between the aluminum cabinet and mate it up to the rivnuts you already have installed in the sheetmetal? If not, I would install a few more rivnuts, drill out the wood so a bolt can pass through an L-bracket in the cabinet, through the wood and into the rivnut in steel.
Good morning. We just bought this kit and built it out. It was really easy to assemble and build the drawers. Now, I am wondering about how to actually add a door for the waterside for this kit? What pitfalls should we avoid and any tips/tricks would be helpful.
Hi, I did a video on the construction of the drawer faces and cabinet door that you can see here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_RccPYPiTkE.html I also discuss some of the various cabinet hardware here: ourkaravan.com/attaching-cabinet-hardware-to-8020/ I hope that helps, and feel free to ask if anything comes up. -Ken
I have the dometic 55, Can the space for the cooler be narrowed if you remove the cooler handles, making the overall width of the system a few inches narrower? Does the kit come with the drawer hardware? If not do you offer a kit for that?
Yes if you remove the handles there would be room to shorten that portion of the cabinet. The drawer hardware is not included, but see the video I posted right after this one as I show which drawer slides you can buy and I show how to build simple drawer boxes.
The slides are rated for 250 lbs. The fridge empty is 46 lbs and loaded could be close to 100. I would probably design it so the open drawer face is within 1/4” of the floor to help support the weight for sitting.
INQUIRY: for the slide in t-nuts ... is the correct way to have the screw hole bump facing INTO the exterior channel or INTO the interior channel of the 80/20? Never seems consistent in the videos I've watched.
Thanks for another great video. I wish I could use your set up but alas I have some size restraints in my layout (Nissan NV) which will require a custom configuration. In your opinion are the anchor bolts you use for making 90deg connections better than using an angle with bolts or some other way?
Anchor fastener is the strongest connection but the 15 series is large enough to accommodate 5/16” carriage bolts and thus offers plenty of strength. We used anchor fasteners here because it makes the kit easier to assemble. You’ll be fine, 15-series is legit.
I believe they do ship to Canada. When you hit the add to cart/request quote button and put in your shipping details they will reply with a shipping quote. And thanks for the kind words!
I use 3/4 for two reasons. The European hinges need 1/2” cup depth on the cabinet door (if you use the same hinges I do) and for the amount of wood in a small cabinet, the weight penalty of 3/4 over 1/2” is minuscule. Some of my friends have had issues with 1/2” hardwoods warping at cabinet latches or anywhere there’s tension on a door face, and the 3/4” materials helps reduce that potential.
Hey Ken, do you think it would be possible to use the 20" drawer slides with the CFX55 cooler? I am trying to save as much space as possible, and it looks like the Vadania 22" non locking slides are currently sold out. Also, how do you secure the cooler on the drawer? Is there a way to do this if I take the handles off the cooler? Thanks for all your videos! -Ryan
Sorry just seeing this. The slides are in stock at the moment, both locking and non locking. There are a couple of options for securing the fridge. The first is to use the threaded attachment points Dometic provides in the bottom of the cooler, and you could drill through the drawer bottom and slightly recess the heads so they don’t strike as the drawer goes in or out. There’s also room on both sides of the cooler to mount a d-ring so you can strap it down via the handles. I see it done this way a lot on truck and SUV builds. I hope that helps.
@@ourkaravan Thanks for the response! I am not seeing the 22" non locking slides available on Amazon. Can you please share a link? Thanks again for all the content and looking forward to sharing the progress I'm making soon.
Oh you're right, when I click on non locking it reverts to 20". Assuming you either bought my galley kit or closely replicated it, the 20" will work---the 80/20 that supports the slides have infinite mounting points for the slide to securely mount to the frame and the only change is the back 2" of the drawer won't be attached to a slide. I see no issues with that.
@@ourkaravan thanks, I went ahead and ordered the 20" slides and will be installing them on my 8020 kitchen galley designed after yours. My galley will be 20" deep instead on 22"; I'm trying to leave as much floor space for motorcycles as possible. Thanks again!
Thank you much! If you run into any snags let me know. They are a good company to work with but may have a couple of days of catch-up after the weekend.
Hi Marie, if you click on the link to the distributor’s website all of the specs, estimated shipping by state, and pricing is listed. Let me know if you can’t find it.
